All about flowers

ahh that makes much more sense!

thanx guys
E

It all makes so much more sense under the influence of alcohol...

Does anyone else find antispin flowers easier when doing more than 4 beats?

Since they have been referenced a few times now, here are the animations for a few flowers I made:


Buzzsaw fountain with lockouts


Goofy chase flower


Alternating parallel lockouts

Very cool. The buzzsaw fountain looks nice. Might try that one later on.

I love the last one. I do something similar with butterfly

Is it just me that finds that flowers are really, really frustrating to learn? I just started, just a basic four-point flower, and I find it impossible to think of the poi rotating one way, my arms rotating in another, and then my arms not being at the same point... any practice tips floating about that would make these less... impossible?

PS, Icon? That first vid is a realy cute trick. I like it.

If your Poi rotates different way than hands than you are
anti-spinning, in that case you can try to pass, step by
step, all four positions of anti-spin.

Practise solo your right hand on your right side
and left on your left. Than you can start with
hands straight in line the full pattern.

lighting,

:R

I got into flowers by messing about with weaves and lockouts and then mcp and bluecat showed me a few interesting things. My advice is to learn the weave-flower first as it really helps when learning flower turns (one of my many new babies).

WOW, Secret of Flowers... everything I wanted to know! I've been missing out... I had no idea flowers could be so freeing! Right, this is next on my agenda after I nail BTB waist wraps.

Cheers Nick for an ace vid!

managed to get my split time flowers looking quite nice now. I can actually do antispin flowers, although they look pretty crap my brain has figured out how to do them.

like patting head and rubbing stomach times 8

Hurray! I've finally put up a proper flowers video Tutorial:

The Secret of Poi Flowers

Let me know whatcha think

Oh, yeah, and in case you didn't know: I've finally started a proper thread where I'll be releasing new videos and tutorials every month or two:

Nick's Official Poi Video Thread

I've just about nailed 4 point antispin flowers, never thought I'd get it before I watched that vid Nik!

One point though: Everybody seems to do their lockouts at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock , 6 and 9. I'm finding it MUCH easier to do them at the diagonals, ie 1.5, 4.5, 7.5 and 10.5 o'clock.

I suppose both approaches are equally valid, and really I should practise both equally, but any thoughts anyone?

do you mean like this sambo:

http://www.homeofpoi.com/ubbthreads/images/users/1911.jpg

that's garthy's avatar which is a photo of him doing 4 petal antispin flowers with the 'beats' (i.e. the poi pass his arms) at 3, 6, 9, 12...

this is the same way i do mine (except nowhere near as clean as that).

some people prefer (or choose) to make that pattern a '+' instead of an 'x'.

this is where the poi are pointing directly away from your arms at 3, 6, 9 and 12.

or if you can spin the same pattern with quartertime poi, you get a mix of the two:

http://www.homeofpoi.com/gallery/showpho...=500&page=1


cole. x

Ahhh, so counting the beats when they come past your arms is the way! I was wondering how to count them...

I was refering to when the poi are furthest outwards, which I do at the x points. Guess that means if I'm counting beats as the poi go past my arms, it actually IS at the + points.

All becomes clear!! Cheers Cole, you're a star!

I'm loving that quartertime thingy. Hmm, I wonder what would happen if you kept your arm circle movements 180 degrees apart like a usual flower, but spun the poi in polyrhythm? 3:2 for example? If the hand doing the 2 did 4 points, one on each beat, you'd get a 4 petal flower with that hand and a 6 petal flower with the other hand... or something.... I'm loving polyrhythms....


*wonders off stroking beard and staring into middle distance*

not quite polyrhythm (which I'm loving by the way, thanks cole) but one thing I find fun to play with is different foils...as in one arm doing quadrifoil and one doing trifoil.

piccy

granted the exposure is too short, but you get the idea

I'm not sure if I'm doing an x or a + with my antispin flowers. In fact, until Sambo's post I hadn't really given it much thought. I might just be making a total mess.

Guess I'll have to get out my el cheapo camera and take some shots in order to figure it out, either that, or buy a proper camera, one that I can control exposure time with.

fireNice...Big kudos to the tutorials you've been putting up lately....much appreciated

Right, since Cole's post I've been trying to count beats when the poi pass my arms in + formation, but it doesn't seem to be working for me. I prefer to think of a beat as when the poi is lined up with my arm (ie, shoulder, hand, poi head in a line), and count it in X formation, I find it easier.

Is there any reason why it's better to think of it one way or the other? I'm intrigued, and I don't want to get into bad habits...

thanks stout, its an ongoing process, between having time to do it, and actually going out and doing it.....and not being lazy

OK, with a bit more practise/messing with it, I retract my previous statement, it makes a LOT more sense to count when the poi cross your arms. You can judge much easier in relation to your own body than by an external point on a hypothetical circle! Especially when you try other configurations of petals, the common reference point is useful! Cheers everyone!